AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF GUIDED FANTASY ON SELECTED CAREER MEASURES

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of guided fantasy on two aspects of career development, career maturity and career decisiveness, as measured by the Attitude Scale of the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) and the Career Decision Scale (CDS). In addition, the study sought to determine if career-related guided fantasy was a more powerful influence on career maturity and career decisiveness than was directed mental imagery involving non-career activities. Two audiotapes were prepared that contained identical instructions for progressive relaxation but different instructions for directed mental imagery. The guided fantasy (GF) tape contained directions for career-related activities ten years in the future. The imagination exercise (IE) tape contained directions for imagining non-career activities. The GF tape was thirteen minutes forty-seven seconds long, and the IE tape was thirteen minutes and seven seconds long. The two tapes were rated by ten judges who perceived them as comparable regarding affective content, cognitive content, level of anxiety aroused in the listener, clarity of instructions, interest level of activities, and speaker's tone of voice and rate of speech. Subjects in the study were undergraduate students enrolled in a course entitled "Career and Life Planning" at Purdue University. Data were collected in two sessions. In the fall semester 59 students participated, and in the spring 42 students participated. For each data collection session the subjects were divided randomly into three groups that went to separate rooms with an experimenter. The GF group listened to the GF tape, and the IE group listened to the IE tape prior to completing the CMI and CDS. The control (CO) group completed the instruments prior to listening to the GF tape. Analyses of covariance with age as a covariate, for both data collection sessions, revealed no significant main effect for treatment, no significant main effect for sex of subject, and no significant treatment by sex interaction. Results of the first data collection revealed a significant direct relationship between age and CMI scores (p = .01), and a significant inverse relationship between age and CDS scores (p = .007). Results of the second data collection session revealed a trend toward a direct relationship between age and CMI scores (p = .089), and a trend toward an inverse relationship between age and CDS scores (p = .107). In both data collection sessions a significant inverse relationship (p = .001) was found between CMI and CDS scores. The results of the study suggested that guided fantasy might not be an effective technique for use in career counseling. Guided fantasy had no more influence than either directed mental imagery involving non-career activities or no treatment on career maturity and career decisiveness as measured by the CMI and CDS. It must be noted, however, that guided fantasy, as used in this study, was presented in an experimental situation and not in the context of a counseling relationship or in the context of a career exploration group. Recommendations were made for further research involving guided fantasy.